It seems like there are a few big problems with record/playback style GUI automation:
- there is a big upfront cost to identify all of the controls
- there is a big maintenance cost to update all the control mappings when the app changes
- there is a lot of variability about the state of the application and the operating system when you re-run tests that can break the automation
If you are a big fan of exploratory testing, there is a temptation to want to record/playback your test sessions. That’s when item 3 comes to bite you unless you have item 1 done (but to to the best of my knowledge, none of the automation record/playback tools really do 1 well for R/P anyway.)
Could we mitigate 3 by using virtual machines? If we have a VM in a completely known state, then save a snapshot, and start your record/playback tool. Then when you want to regress, you can always start from the same playback point. Everything will be pixel- and byte-exact to the state where you first ran the test.
Is anyone doing this in real applications?
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